Sean Wisedale – response to Noseweek articles
Noseweek have written two articles filled with defamatory allegations about Sean. These articles contain outright lies and factual distortions.
Sean’s response:
Two weeks after publishing a malicious story online and in his very skinny magazine Noseweek, Martin Welz (editor) called me for my point of view at last. I was waiting to see how long it would take. He was ignorant to the history of legal battles between the source of the story Sean and Janet Simons and me, and their noisy and illegal Brightsky self-catering accommodation business (now a boarding facility) they have been running next door. It has taken two weeks for Martin Welz to also learn about the legal battle between my adjacent neighbour Kevin Nel and the Simons. Kevin has been in a legal battle with them to retrieve his private road, which the Simons have commandeered and tried to incorporate into their property.
If Martin Welz and Paul Kirk (the anonymous journalist of the story) would like to see the eThekwini contravention notices and the three files full of complaints I have against the Simons they are welcome to visit my home. Which only has one high wall on the front, is well run by my gorgeous wife Katherine who is far from timid, having run Comrades, completed Ironman and paddled many great rivers. They will also learn that my supposedly ex-friend Michael Greenaway and I are good mates and have been for over twenty years.
I am a red headed South African with Irish blood in the mix. I got angry with the Simons incessant noise and I wailed from the rooftop after a few ‘boolies’, just to let the Simons know exactly what it feels like. They recorded it. It is an isolated event and they scuttled off to Noseweek with it. I have not committed any crime in trying to restore the peace in my own home that has been destroyed by the inconsiderate Simons. Today I am writing to all the ‘anonymous neighbours’ mentioned in the story to apologise to them for having to hear my protests.
On the 8th March 2013, just before the story was published Kevin Nel and I received a ruling by the Provincial Town Planning and Appeals Board that the Simons were suspended from continuing their ‘Brightsky self catering’ and from constructing garages to service their units off Kevin Nel’s private road. I live in hope with my wife Katherine and our 11 month-old daughter – Sarah Jane that we will find a solution soon. Great walls make great neighbours.
Katherine’s response:
In their latest publication (163 May 2013) Noseweek states that they tried to contact Sean while he was climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and that he would only return after their deadline. I don’t recall anyone phoning me from Noseweek during the week Sean was away to get our side of the story. They’ve said this to cover themselves. Martin Welz also told Sean that he would phone me to get my response. This never happened. It’s convenient for Noseweek that Sean was away when they said they tried to get his response only three or less days before the article was published online. What this illustrates is Noseweek’s intention right from the beginning to gun for Sean and not give him a fair chance.
Both articles are filled with defamatory allegations about Sean and contain outright lies and factual distortions, hiding behind nameless informants and as yet unidentified author. What I find interesting is how the incident recorded which happened last year, is published shortly after the Simons’s self catering establishment had been suspended in March this year. If Sean’s shouting on the night of the recording had terrified the neighbours so much why not report it to Noseweek soon after the incident occurred. Why only now, many months down the line?
It’s so easy to focus on the drinking and Sean’s ranting. It’s shallow and it’s malicious. Surely as a self confessed investigative magazine, Noseweek are compelled to hear the other side before damning somebody as viciously as they did. Yes, Sean had enjoyed a few drinks – like so many of us do – and this had caused the unfairness of our neighbour dispute to rise to the surface and he shouted across at the Simons. He would not do this without good cause. Shouting is unfortunately the only way that they will respond. From my experience of calling, smsing or sending the Simons polite emails about their tenants noise, I am ignored or I get told ‘call the police’ and the phone is rudely put down on me. The dispute with the Simon goes way back to 2004 when Sean built a palisade fence between the properties. The Simons promised to pay half and then reneged on the promise. Sean had to go to court to get them to eventually pay. These are the type of people we are dealing with. Noseweek won’t mention facts like this because it doesn’t support their attack on Sean.
While Sean has been away I have been subjected to a stream of threatening and defamatory sms’s (all on record). The sender uses aliases and the person won’t answer the phone when I immediately call the numbers used to send the sms’s. It’s such cowardly behaviour. I’m an easy target while Sean is away. Who is threatening who here? Who is unbalanced or ‘psychotic’?
Sean would never lay a finger on me nor our 11 month old daughter (not 18 months old). The suggestion of abuse is outrageous. He is a loving, kind, brilliant husband who adores and is adored by our little girl. He is no saint and has a fiery temper when provoked. But he would also lay down his life for his family and friends and even strangers. Such was the case last year when a disorientated and weak Russian father and son on Mt Elbrus collapsed in the snow and Sean hauled them to safety. He’s a dependable and conscientious mountain guide – why not interview his clients? Why not focus on his strength of character, his bravery, his big heart and willingness to help people. Because it’s not news and doesn’t sell.
I urge the discerning reader to see these vindictive articles as a witch-hunt by batty and bitter neighbours. And by a magazine that has focused on their own admission ‘not about the neighbour hood dispute’ which is the crux of the story the reader is not supposed to know; but rather on bringing a good man down by focusing on Sean’s behaviour when he’s had a ‘boolie or two’.
Sean and I have both had wonderful neighbours throughout our lives and been on good terms with them. Where do you turn when you have ‘neighbours from hell?’
